WiFi Pricing on TPAC 747

What is United charging these days for TPAC 747 WiFi service? They sent me an email that my upcoming flight will have WiFi, but the links for further details are all broken.

Do they have a lower-priced mobile device offering?

 

I paid $20.99 on SFO-ICN. Did not check whether there was a cheaper offer for a mobile user agent.

The wifi was unusably poor (maybe 20% of the time that I tried, it was available, and for no longer than about 5-10 min at a time). I didn't complain, but UA automatically posted a refund to my credit card five days after the flight.

 

Thanks. I'd probably only be interested in using it for 1-2 hour max (catching up on some emails mid-flight), and since the money would come out of my own pocket, I wouldn't be willing to pay $21.

 

Also, are the non-p.s. 757 listed on this page domestic or does it include the international fleet? I suppose I could do the math and figure out of 7 planes represents 8% of the domestic fleet...

 

My preferred / canonical source for wifi is the fan site tracking the fleet, https://sites.google.com/site/unitedfleetsite/mainline-fleet-tracking .

Hit the "757-2" tab then filter to seat map "flat bed intl" and it looks like ONE of those aircraft has wi-fi (N58101, ship number 3101, should show up as "3101" on the mobile.united.com "aircraft number" view). Good luck.

 

Thanks. I have a couple of 757 TATL rides coming up next month. Looks like chances are slim to none. At least the 747 is nowadays guaranteed to be equipped with WiFi... (whether it works is another question, based on your experience and other reports I have read).

 

I paid the $21 on SFO-ICN last Thursday and $17 NRT-EWR on Monday. Relatively consistent 3mbit download speeds and .35mbit upload speeds when I tested. Service is OK for basic browsing or email. I did get in to a client site via VPN + RDP at one point as well. As long as that's your goal it is a decent service.

 

$19.99 on my flight. No special phone price. Seat power plugs didn't work. Passed on WiFi, other than to test the new Android streaming support (worked well).

 

I have had much worse performance at fancy hotels.

 

$12.99 yesterday on a 753 transcon. I wish they offered more flexibility. I probably would have bought an hour of time for a $2-$3.

 

$16.99 on NRT-EWR B777, and it was reasonably fast and reliable (I was doing text and email, not videos or gaming)

 

$16.99 MEL-LAX on the 787-9. No apparent drops throughout the entire flight. Reliably 3mbit down, .5mbit up, and I fell asleep to my favorite radio station streaming through the iPad.

 

$20.99 on a recent flight to Frankfurt. Didn't bite since I was hoping to sleep.

I did play a bit with the map, and I noticed that the Google Play store *search* doesn't seem to be blocked (for unpaid connections). I was able to search and browse apps. But downloads didn't go through. Makes me wonder what protocol the search uses...

 

More likely issues with URLs than protocols.

 

Well, my expectation would have been that the Play app uses RESTful services, thus http. And that those calls like any browser requests result in a redirect to the unitedwifi page of the onboard server until the user has paid. But that doesn't seem to happen. First I thought that perhaps it was intentional so passengers could download the latest androd app inflight to access the streaming video. But none of my attempts to download new apps succeeded (I did not try the United app since I already had it).

 

Unless they have some URLs or IPs unblocked. Google has historically been one which for which blocking is challenging because some services use the Google DNS resources or other bits to provide the portal or free on board content.

Much like you I presume that all the Google Play stuff happens over HTTP/S so it is unlikely that protocols are where the issue is.

 

Two more data points;
12/28/2014 SFO-ICN (747): $20.99
01/04/2015 NRT-IAD (777): $16.99

The pricing is clearly not a function of flight length.

I am happy to pay on international flights, but have only once paid for domestic ($1 for 1 hour of mobile).

 

EWR-PVG on 1/1 was $16.99